The good point about this book is that it contains a wealth of technological, organizational, and operational detail about unconventional German naval warfare. This includes frogmen, mini-subs, assault boats and the like.

Not so good is the context that Paterson sees fit to put his story in, as the goal seems to be to depict these men as being "sailors like any other" as it were. What's wrong with that you might ask? Well, there are times when Paterson seems as though he's trying a little too hard to dispell the unseemly aura that attaches itself to any military endeavor that smacks of a suicide operation. This is particularly since a study of these units in the context of the National Socialist hot-house environment of "people's war" and "vengeance weapons" would have been interesting. Paterson does address some of these matters from the opposite perspective, when he considers how the stodgy mentality of the German naval high command prevented the development of special forces until they could be little more than a sucide force. ( )